Gavin Cooney

THE GREATEST COMPLIMENT to this Liverpool performance is that it could have come from any previous season rather than keeping lineage with this risible campaign.

The glum apathy that has overtaken Anfield in recent weeks wasn’t evident before kick-off, with the ground instead eschewing their present, bloodless context to roll back the clock to European nights of yore, dusting off a songbook that goes back to the days when the Champions League was sponsored by Amstel and the PS2 rather than Crypto.com. 

Arne Slot effected his own change. He has never been so demonstrative on the sideline as he was here; slumping to the turf with missed chances and leaping into the air and cackling with sarcastic laughter at officiating decisions that went his way.

It may have been a conscious decision to channel his predecessor…or more likely this was the frantic, het-up disposition of a man under major pressure.

Happily for Slot, his players proceeded to ratchet up their own intensity in what was their best performance of the season so far. 

The difference was partly rooted in the tactical, as Slot’s formation looked more a 4-2-2-2 than the usual 4-3-3, with Mo Salah playing more narrow and alongside Hugo Ekitike with Florian Wirtz and Dominik Szoboszlai playing in behind them. But Liverpool’s biggest fillip was provided by their own work-rate: they flew out of the traps and pressed Galatasaray with a zeal they have not showed all season. Where Tottenham outran Liverpool by 8.6km on Sunday, tonight Liverpool comfortably led the running stats. This used to be the crude benchmark in the early days of Jurgen Klopp’s reign, and this was proof that Liverpool have been long overdue a return to first principles.

It was a performance to raise a couple of uncomfortable questions, of course. Why haven’t Liverpool been working as hard across the season so far? And how on earth have they lost twice to Galatasaray without scoring this season? 

The Turkish side were exactly as defensively robust as the pre-match sentence ‘missing defensive lynchpin Davinson Sanchez through suspension’ suggests. Liverpool’s characteristic profligacy was the only factor keeping Galatasaray in the tie across the first-half here: while Szoboszlai’s terrific, controlled finish from a corner routine put them ahead, they should have been out of sight. Salah had a tame penalty saved; Wirtz had a point-blank range shot deflected over the bar; Alexis MacAllister slammed against the crossbar from four yards out. 

Liverpool have been pitifully poor at reacting to their own mishaps this season, but this time they didn’t allow their standards to drop after half-time, and Salah’s excellent, skidded pass to the back post meant Ekitike could not miss that nerve-settling goal. Minutes later, Wirtz, playing once again with true purpose, bounced a gorgeous, Ozilesque pass through for Salah, whose fizzed shot was blocked and fell for Ryan Gravenberch to kill the game. A fourth goal was chalked off for offside until Salah ran things back, finishing with a classical curling finish to the far corner from the edge of the box. 

Salah was ultimately substituted with an apparent injury, but while this can’t be considered one of his best Liverpool performances, he was far more involved tonight than he has been across games in recent months. He can thank Slot’s belated tactical tweak for this: no longer told to stand out on the right wing and waste his dwindling energy running shuttle runs to defenders he had neither a hope nor an interest in catching, tonight he was closer to goal and responded with a much more productive night. 

The absence of any zip and purpose to Liverpool’s performances this season has been mystifying, but tonight Slot at least showed he is still capable of coaxing it from his misfiring players.

Though he will have to coax a whole lot more from them if they are to beat Paris Saint-Germain.